


Name Game

by aretia



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Insecurity, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22535449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: “I can’t believe I’m going to be Edrisa Bright!”"No, you're not.""Why not?"“Because I’m going to be Malcolm Tanaka.”
Relationships: Malcolm Bright/Edrisa Tanaka
Comments: 21
Kudos: 137





	Name Game

**Author's Note:**

> I write Maldrisa fics when I'm procrastinating my longer projects. So, if you were hoping to see more Maldrisa from me, you're in luck, because I didn't want to edit my long fic this weekend.

Malcolm Bright felt so buoyant that he practically skipped through the door of the apartment. He had asked Edrisa Tanaka to marry him that night at dinner, and she had said yes. 

Edrisa’s energy fed off of his, and she was even more bouncy than usual. He made his way into the living room to sit down on the couch, and once she was done taking off her shoes in the entryway, she followed after him. 

“I can’t believe I’m going to be Edrisa Bright!” Edrisa said, in that giddy way she had, like she was a schoolgirl doodling in the margins of her notebook, writing her name with the last name of her favorite celebrity inside a heart. She never felt the need to dampen her affection, and Malcolm adored that about her. 

Malcolm beckoned her to sit on his lap, and she happily obliged. She straddled him on the couch, face to face with him, her knees framing his narrow waist. He rested his hands on her thighs and looked up at her with a moonstruck smile, and said, “No, you’re not.”

Edrisa’s face fell, and whenever that smile left her face, it was like all the light had drained from the room. “Why not?” she asked, her voice laced with concern. Oh, how he wished he could take all of her insecurities and sit them down in front of a mirror that would show her how beautiful she was in his eyes.

“Because I’m going to be Malcolm Tanaka.”

Edrisa laughed, that most delightful sound that Malcolm always sought after. “You want to take my last name?” she asked.

“Yes. What’s so surprising about that?” Malcolm replied sincerely.

“Well, for one thing, it’s not exactly traditional for a man to take his wife’s last name. Not that there’s anything wrong with going against tradition! You don’t feel like you have to do this to make some sort of statement, do you?” she rambled.

Malcolm smiled and shook his head. “No, it’s not that.”

“I just don’t know why… why would you want to change your name?” she said. “It suits you. Everyone at the precinct just calls you Bright. If we were both Tanaka, things would get confusing.”

“Bright was just a name I made up,” Malcolm said. “It doesn’t really mean anything. I just needed to change it to something, anything, to…” A comforting touch of Edrisa’s fingers underneath his jaw told him that he didn’t need to finish that sentence. “Well, you know. But I always wanted to have a family name again, a name that represented my connection to someone special to me.” He placed his hand over hers on his cheek, holding it there, and turned his head to press a kiss to her palm. With his other hand on the small of her back, he could feel how the touch sent a shiver up her spine. “Your name is something I want to keep with me always.”

“But what if…” Her voice trembled. “What if you change your mind? If you had my last name, you’d have to explain that to whoever you end up with after me.”

Malcolm sighed. Even after being her friend for seven years and being madly in love with her for the past two, even after proposing to her, he still couldn’t get her to shake that lingering doubt. He took her hand from the side of his face, and touched her engagement ring with his thumb. “ _This_ means that I’ve already decided. I’m never going to change my mind, Risa.”

Edrisa had let it slip once that she didn’t really like her first name. Malcolm thought her name was elegant and unique, but it reminded her of the bullies in elementary school who had teased her for having an uncommon name. She hated being called ‘Ed’ even more, but no one had ever thought to make a nickname out of the second part of her name. ‘Risa’ had a bubbly sound to it, just like her laughter. She lit up whenever he called her that, the same way other people would when their significant other called them ‘sweetheart’ or ‘darling.’ She likely wouldn’t mind if others took up calling her ‘Risa,’ but it had remained Malcolm’s nickname for her, a name brimming with his adoration for her every time he said it. 

“You’ve already given me a name,” she said. “So if you wanted me to give you mine, I suppose that would only be fair.”

“Yes, I would consider that a fair trade,” Malcolm said. She draped her arms over his shoulders, and he tugged her closer by the waist and captured her lips in a sweet kiss.


End file.
